Shocker! House Republicans conceded on Wednesday they didn’t have the votes to pass a transportation and housing bill for the next fiscal year that would have reduced federal spending by 15 percent and also curtailed New Starts funding — thereby impacting monies needed by the Purple Line Extension and the Regional Connector. Democrats blame the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party for wasting everyone’s time.

Of the 4,000 bikes stolen in S.F. last year, only 142 were returned to their rightful owners — although more than 800 stolen bikes were actually recovered by police. The SFPD is trying to up that number by using this Twitter feed to send out photos of bikes that police recover. Great idea. Anyone know if we have any police departments doing something like this here?

The big hole in the ground between 1st, 2nd, Broadway and Hill will finally get the new 10-story federal courthouse it has been waiting for since 2007. The architect describes it as a “very luminous light-filled, floating cube” hovering over its stone base.” Buried in the story is this little nugget: the feds don’t yet know what they’ll be doing with the old federal courthouse, the massive — and actually pretty cool — building just north of City Hall. As for the Civic Center revival, a lot has been done (Caltrans building, LAPD HQ, Grand Park) but there’s still a lot on the docket, IMO. The underground mall next to City Hall East (itself an architectural atrocity) is a waste of space, the long-empty lot at 1st between Spring and Broadway remains empty (although the city recently purchased) and the Grand Avenue project is still not built (it was approved in 2007). At least the old Hall of Justice building is being renovated and may be ready for occupancy by the end of 2014.